In the fable The Wolf and the Dog, 17th-century French writer Jean de La Fontaine depicted the former as wild and free, the latter as stupid and servile. What nonsense. True, the wolf may once have been an apex predator that ruled over our forests – but today there are none left in Britain.
By contrast, domesticated mutts are thriving, thanks to a survival strategy beyond the wit of wolves. Your cockapoo or pomeranian has soft-pedalled its savagery and made a virtue of its powerlessness, instead: rolling on its back, whimpering plaintively, looking up with big, watery eyes.
